As India’s freedom struggle was approaching its culmination, Gandhi made his intentions clear that Indian National Congress (INC) should be dissolved. Gandhi felt the objective of the INC was to liberate India from British rule; once that goal was accomplished, the organization had no existential purpose.
Gandhi proposed that all leaders
who desired public service via electoral politics should form their own political party and contest
elections. This actually would have been democracy in the real sense.
It is interesting to consider the possible
outcomes of such an idea.
Perhaps Nehru would have been rejected
by the people, which probably would have been the end of his political journey
of the dynasty. Perhaps Sardar Patel would have been India’s first Prime
Minister. Perhaps a newer relatively unknown face would have emerged as the
nation’s leader following a fractured mandate.
However, Nehru and others within the
party understood that the INC had brand recognition such that they could
ride the wave of goodwill earned by the party during the freedom struggle. Challengers
could be implicitly or explicitly branded as a traitor for challenging the founding fathers
of free India. Hence, Gandhi’s advice was conveniently ignored and the INC prevailed.
However, Gandhi's advice was followed in another matter.
In 1946, an internal election was held to decide the Party President for the INC. This elected President would become the first prime minister of independent India.
Among the candidates for the presidency were Jawaharlal Nehru, Acharya Kripalani, and Sardar Patel. The INC working committee and the various state committees had to nominate their preferred candidate.
From the start Gandhi favoured Nehru, Gandhi
had explained his rationale behind backing Nehru 'Jawaharlal cannot be
replaced today whilst the charge is being taken from the British. He, a Harrow
boy, a Cambridge graduate, and a barrister, is wanted to carry on the
negotiations with the Englishmen.'
He also felt that Nehru was better
known abroad and could help India play a role in international affairs.
Even Maulana Azad endorsed
Nehru three days before the last date of nomination. He wrote in his
autobiography, published posthumously in 1959:
“After weighing the pros
and cons I came to the conclusion that the election of Sardar Patel would not
be desirable in the existing circumstances. Taking all facts into consideration
it seemed to me that Jawaharlal should be the new President…."
The results showed that the members of INC had a drastically different opinion.
Sardar Patel who
was known to be a great executive, organizer, and leader, won 12 out of 15 state committees, the other state
committees abstained from the process. Nehru did not receive any nominations. This
was a unanimous choice for Patel while Nehru was resounding rejected.
Sardar Patel was on his way to
becoming India's first Prime Minister.
When Gandhi conveyed the results to
Nehru, instead of humbly accepting the popular mandate, Nehru’s reaction was that
of total silence.
Gandhi realized that while that Patel
would agree to work as Nehru's deputy, the reverse would most certainly not happen.
Thus Gandhi intervened and asked Patel
to withdraw his nomination.
In deference to Gandhi, Kripalani nominated Nehru and withdrew from the contest. Patel who regarded Gandhi as his mentor then willingly stepped aside in favour of Nehru.
Such a supreme sacrifice is unthinkable in contemporary times.
There were two major reasons why Patel accepted Gandhi’s request.
Firstly, unlike Nehru, he never had coveted positions or posts, for him satisfaction was solely derived in his service to the nation.
Secondly, Patel also that
Nehru was not one to take rejection well. He had an inkling that Nehru would
probably reject playing deputy to Patel and in fact become a fierce opponent of
Patel and an impediment as he governed the nation. He knew Nehru had his myriad
supporters who would also join his faction of opposing Patel.
Patel understood that this division between him and Nehru would further divide a nation that was already plagued with various problems and was about to undergo an almost cataclysmic partition.
Gandhi unwittingly introduced the anti-democratic tradition of the ‘party high commands' overruling state units for inter-party matters.
Dr. Rajendra
Prasad later remarked: 'Gandhi has once again
sacrificed his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the glamorous Nehru.'
Prasad's usage of “once again” was owing to the Patel was
denied the presidency of the INC in 1929, 1937, and 1946 in preference to Nehru
and this change always occurred the last moment.
Nehru was hence ‘elected’ unopposed and his path was cleared India first Prime Minister.
Maulana
Azad later changed his opinion about his previous endorsement of Nehru
“It
was a mistake on my part that I did not support Sardar Patel. We differed on
many issues but I am convinced that if he had succeeded me as Congress
President he would have seen that the Cabinet Mission Plan was successfully
implemented. He would have never committed the mistake of Jawaharlal which gave
Mr. Jinnah an opportunity of sabotaging the Plan. I can never forgive myself
when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of
the last ten years would have been different.”
Michael Brecher who wrote in his biography
of Nehru wrote:
“In accordance with the
time-honoured practice of rotating the Presidency, Patel was in line for the
post. Fifteen years had elapsed since he presided over the Karachi session
whereas Nehru had presided at Lucknow and Ferozpur in 1936 and 1937. Moreover,
Patel was the overwhelming choice of the Provincial Congress Committees….
Nehru’s ‘election’ was due to Gandhi’s intervention. Patel was persuaded to
step down….
“If Gandhi had not
intervened, Patel would have been the first de facto Premier of India, in 1946-47.
The Sardar was ‘robbed of the prize’ and it rankled deeply.”
C.
Rajagopalachari, who wrote in Bhawan’s Journal in 1972,
“Undoubtedly it would have been
better if Nehru had been asked to be the Foreign Minister and Patel made the
Prime Minister. I too fell into the error of believing that Jawaharlal was the
more enlightened person of the two. A myth had grown about Patel that he would
be harsh towards Muslims. This was a wrong notion but it was the prevailing
prejudice.”
Patel passed away in 1950 and in 1952, INC
secured a massive majority in free India’s very first election. Nehru
remained India’s prime minister and continued to be prime minister till his last
breath.
It is sad, unfortunate, and scandalous that the very first election that would decide the leader of free India was manipulated. It wasn’t only the election but the future of India that was rigged.
https://www.opindia.com/2021/11/jawaharlal-nehru-first-prime-minister-of-india/
Comments
Post a Comment